District 207 Board Honors Three Students as Career Explorers

The District 207 Board of Education honored three students as "207's Best" in the area of career exploration during its March meeting. The students recognized in career exploration were Jada Byrd from Maine East, Athena Demeros from Maine South and Christine Sullivan from Maine West.

Jada M. Byrd

Jada's career exploration journey is one that is a model for other students at Maine East. She worked as a babysitter as a first job and knew from that experience she wanted to work with children in some capacity. That led to a paid summer internship at Apollo Elementary School in the summer ESL program where she worked as a tutor helping teach math, reading, and writing to second-grade multilingual learners. Despite having a positive experience in the classroom she learned that she would prefer not to teach. The internship confirmed that she wanted to work with kids but not in the classroom. Instead she knew she wanted to work in the medical field as a pediatrician. With that knowledge, Jada has taken Early Childhood Development, Anatomy and Physiology, and AP Biology specifically to support her college plans. In addition, she is currently a pharmacy technician at Walgreens. Finally, she has been nominated to participate in the Lutheran General Surgical Shadowing Program. Jada has been accepted at a number of colleges where she will earn a medical degree with a focus on pediatrics.

In addition to her career exploration, she is an active member of the National Honor Society. She also participates in the Black Student Union and Tri-M Music Honor Society. She has led the Responsible Tech Club and leads SOAR (Students Organized Against Racism). She is a four-year member of the volleyball team.

"Jada is beyond her years in maturity and career readiness,"says Maine East teacher Tess Love. "As a student in my virtual healthcare careers class and medical terminology class, she was always engaged in the conversations regarding healthcare and her future career plans. Jada continually sought out opportunities to learn more about the medical field and make connections with healthcare professionals when they came to virtually visit the class."

Mieka Yochim, School Counselor and SOAR co-sponsor says that "Jada is a force. She uses her voice to advocate for inclusion, justice, and the overall well-being of those around her. Jada is a natural leader with contagious passion and strong interpersonal skills. She takes risks and is reflective of both her choices and the experiences of others. Jada, undoubtedly, has a successful future ahead."

Athena Demeros

Athena knew she wanted to be a doctor when she arrived in high school and utilized the Career Center to its fullest to help her on her journey to make her dream a reality. One of the first things she did was to join the Body Insight program during the summer before her sophomore year, which allowed her to explore the body and dissect animals. During her junior year, she was accepted into the Pharm Academy Camp, allowing her to learn about pharmacy and narrow her desires further as she learned that she did not want to be in the lab but instead wanted to interact with health patients. She extended this into her academics, taking Anatomy and Healthcare Careers. That experience led to an internship as a pharmacy technician at Walgreens during her junior year. She also took Anatomy and Healthcare Careers at school to learn more about the industry. She also had an internship at Suburban Pediatrics where she shadowed doctors and ultimately realized she wanted to be in outpatient work and not exclusively in a hospital. The summer before her senior year, she was involved in a medical camp at Bowling Green. She has continually used her summers as a way to further her discovery of different careers and passions.

In addition to her career explorations, she is a flute section leader in band, Vice-President of HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America), a member of the National Honor Society, Science NHS, Medical Careers Club, and Greek Club. She is also a writer for Southwords, the school newspaper.

Heather Sinnott, Athena's Medical Terminology teacher, says that "for the last two years, Athena has held HOSA Future Health Professionals officer positions. Last year, she was the Secretary, and this year, she is serving as our Vice President. She has been a huge help to me and has really become a leader. Athena is passionate about pursuing a career in the Healthcare field. Currently, she is a student in my Medical Terminology class and she is such a mature, hard working, and responsible student. In fact, she was recently my Student of the Month."

Trevor Fritz, her AP Psychology teacher revealed that Athena "is an exceptional student who is always on top of her work. She has a unique ability to comprehend concepts learned in our class and apply them to her own life. Athena has helped to create an extremely positive classroom environment."

Christine Sullivan

Christine's career exploration journey started her junior year when she transferred to Maine West. After being asked to record the play her junior year for virtual release, her passion for media became apparent and she has since sought out opportunities to learn about media production in any way she could. She started by helping film the school's spring musical. This year she volunteered to serve as the director of the school's Quarter 1 live streams. She also volunteered to make the school's Veterans Day video. She was accepted for the District 207 Videography Internship Program this year and is also an intern for the City of Des Plaines.

"What I admire most about Christine is not only her 'go getter' personality, but the way she is driven by her empathy for those around her," says teacher Rebecca Orr."When filming our recent Poetry Out Loud program, she insisted on providing ample coverage of all of the winners for the day. When leading a live stream, she recognizes the importance of making all team members feel like they are essential to the work we are doing. I could talk about how awesome this kid is for hours. We will miss her leadership next year!"

Although she transferred as a junior, Christine quickly integrated herself into the environment at Maine West. She has involved herself in nearly every aspect of media and video content that Maine West has to offer, all in order to truly determine her career path thoroughly, accurately, and passionately.

Spanish Teacher Aaron Fleming revealed that, "Christine is always a model for her peers in terms of how she interacts with others. She is positive, engaging, and respectful of all of her classmates. She is also a model for what a true learner looks like. She always asks questions and is always assessing what she knows and does not know in order to learn more."